The Year All Hell Broke Loose
by ichigoarerugi
Summary: Orphaned teen genius Adrianne Bloodworth thought she knew what to expect at her exclusive boarding school. But when she finds herself surrounded by the mysterious and supernatural, relationships are tested and she's forced to realize that nothing is as she thought it was... including Adrianne herself. Modern!AU, eventual SebastianxOC and GrellxOC.
1. Chapter 1

This was the earliest indication that my junior year at Alexandrina Academy was when all hell was going to break loose: Elizabeth Midford, the fiancé of the Phantomhive boy, practically kicking down the door to my dorm and nearly giving me a heart attack in the process.

You see, I'd been straightening the room out for when my roommate decided to show up. I'd had the summer to settle in already; since there were so few students that actually decided to take advantage of the summer courses Alexandrina offered, each of us was spared the burden of having a roommate and given our own dorms instead. So, from early June to mid-August, I'd had a two-person dorm all to myself.

I guess it was a little lonely. In my opinion, the room was far too spacious for one person. Then again, before I came to this school, I was accustomed to never having more than a closet-sized space to call my own. Having such a big room all to myself just seemed wasteful and extravagant. Still, staying at the school year-round was my best option: it gave me the chance to enrich myself academically and not have to be shuffled to another foster home for the two and a half months between terms. I kind of enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Anyway, since the break had passed and I was expecting my roommate to make her appearance at any minute, I figured it'd be nice to clean up for her. The spoiled kids at Alexandrina were used to having everything in order for them. They were all rich enough to have a separate maid to clean each room in the gigantic mazes they called houses. (Hell, I'd bet that some even had maids to lift their fingers for them.) Having me as a roommate was already unfortunate in the eyes of most of my peers- they had no idea how to interact with lower-class people, who'd actually had to _work_ for everything they had. I didn't want to 'inconvenience' them any further.

But cleaning was exhausting, so I took a break to get a head-start on some of the required reading for 11th grade Lit. this year. I got so lost in Elizabeth's romance with Mr. Darcy that I didn't notice my new roommate desperately banging on the door… that is, until the door literally came off its hinges and flew across the room, landing uncomfortably close to my head.

I'm usually not easy to startle, but that near-death experience made me jump a good yard into the air. I was literally _shaking, _for God's sake. I turned toward the now-empty doorframe, wondering who was strong enough to send the door flying and fearing for my own safety. I wondered if I'd been unlucky enough to end up with Deandre Baker as a roommate this year; Deandre's mother was an Olympic athlete with as many gold medals as I had pairs of socks, and Deandre was just as ridiculously strong as she was. She also had that same cocky attitude, like the world owed her victory and success at anything she tried. As endlessly pleasant as the rest of my peers are to be around, I'd rather have Satan himself as a roommate than Deandre.

But, thank God, it wasn't her. I was surprised to see that the girl who'd broken the door down was relatively normal looking. Pretty, even, with long blonde waves and green eyes rimmed with eyelashes that were longer than I thought was humanly possible. She didn't even have that much luggage with her, and at Alexandrina, it's not that unusual for students to have_ entire_ _jets_ full of luggage to unload.

That was when I noticed the posse of servants behind her, each loaded down with a ridiculous amount of suitcases and bags- all of which were pink, I might add. Well, so much for her seeming relatively normal.

"Sorry," my roommate started to apologize, "for breaking down the door. I couldn't open manage to open it, for some reason, no matter what I tried. So I eventually just kicked it down. I can't believe I actually managed to do that in these shoes!" She was wearing a pair of white kitten-heeled sandals that looked fairly hard to walk in, let alone break down a door. "I'll get it replaced really soon, I promise!"

"It's fine," I muttered in reply, mainly to get her to stop babbling. I was still freaked out, honestly.

"Thank you for being so understanding! I won't do that it again! Oh, by the way, I'm Elizabeth Midford." As she said this, she shuffled into the room, the servants trailing behind her. She motioned for them to start unpacking her stuff, and they obliged.

"Hi, Elizabeth," I said, half-looking at her and half-watching the servants trying to find enough space to put everything. They were going to have a tough time. "I'm…"

"Oh, I know who you are!" She cut me off. "You're the scholarship student, right?"

I wondered how she knew that already. Granted, it was probably obvious to anyone who got a good look at me. I mean, I was wearing a gray tank top and some denim cutoffs, my dark hair was messy, and I lacked any accessories that probably cost enough to feed a small African nation. I didn't exactly radiate luxury.

"Yeah," I confirmed. She looked kind of proud of herself for getting it right.

"Adrianne, right? My fiancé Ciel told me about you," she paused, biting her lip, like she'd just told me something she wasn't supposed to have revealed.

Which, to be honest, she probably shouldn't have. Because there was only one Ciel that I had heard of, and he was certainly not someone I'd like to encounter again.

"Ciel…?" I asked her. "As in Phantomhive?"

She nodded, suddenly looking a little bit bashful. "Yes. That Ciel."

Before I could say anything else, though, one of the servants interrupted our pitifully awkward conversation. I'm not much of a touchy-feely person, but at that moment, I could've hugged that servant girl.

"Miss Elizabeth?" The servant girl asks, pushing a pair of round, thick-lensed glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I don't mean to bother you, but there doesn't seem to be enough space for all of your things."

Elizabeth's bright green eyes dulled over a bit. Part of me kind of wanted to see this rich girl who clearly was used to getting everything she wanted go without something, for a change. But I did intervene on her behalf, in the end. I wish it could say that was because I was secretly a generous person, but it was really more because I didn't want to witness another stupid tantrum by one of the spoiled brats I called my schoolmates.

"There's two wardrobes in here. I know that one's full, but I've got some extra space in mine. You can stick some of your clothes in there if you need the extra space."

Elizabeth's eyes lit up as the bespectacled servants thanked me. "That was very nice of you, Miss Adrianne, yes it was," she said, as if re-affirming her own statement made it infinitely truer. "Now we can get Miss Elizabeth's stuff sorted and go help Master Ciel arrange his things, yes we can!"

God, these people were annoying me. "You go ahead and do that, Miss," I replied, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice. "If you'll excuse me, I've got all my stuff ready, so I think I'll go see if my friend Morgan needs any help. Nice to meet you, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth and the servants said something else, but I can't remember what it was. To be honest, I wasn't really listening. I was out of the dorm within seconds, trying for the life of me to figure out why Ciel Phantomhive was here at this school. More importantly than that, why did he care to know anything about me?


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter… to be honest, I don't particularly want to be writing this. I'd rather just jump right into the action of the story, which starts next chapter. This is basically just an introduction to Adrianne's two friends, Morgan and Ellis.**

Morgan and I didn't meet at her dorm like I'd told Elizabeth. Instead, we opted to meet in a more private spot: Charlie's, a small café a couple miles from campus. It was a greasy, hole-in-the-wall joint that most of our classmates wouldn't dare to be seen at, but it suited the both of us just fine. Even though I'd had to walk to Charlie's myself, I still managed to get there before Morgan did. (Morgan, for the record, suffered from the condition known as chronic lateness. She couldn't be on time for anything to save her life. I liked to joke that she'd been a few minutes late to her own birth.)

So I grabbed an empty booth and tried to focus on the menu, but my hands were shaking. I wasn't usually a nervous person, but this was an exception. Ciel Phantomhive was here, at my school, to do who-knew-what. He certainly couldn't have been there to study; I knew what kind of business the Earl did. He wasn't an ordinary kid; hell, he wasn't even an ordinary rich kid. I was sure that he wasn't here for so innocent a purpose.

Still, did I have anything to do with whatever business that Phantomhive boy had here?

I was cut off in my train of thought by Morgan, who thankfully chose that moment to show up. She took off her jacket and shoved it in the empty side of the booth before delicately taking a seat next to it.

"Adrianne! I missed you this summer. Wish you'd taken my offer to come home with me over break."

Morgan knew about my living situation (or lack thereof) and had offered to let me spend the summer with her and her family at their estate, but I'd chosen to stay at the school and take those additional classes. I usually spent winter and spring break with her or our friend Ellis, and I didn't want to impose on either of them any more than I had to… plus, neither of their families were all that fond of me- the poor, orphan scholarship student- and I'd rather be spared that unpleasantness.

"Hello, Morgan. It's good to see you again," I said, grateful that my voice wasn't as shaky as my hands were (not that Morgan would've noticed.) "How was your summer?"

"Oh, same as usual," she said. "I went to our island for a few weeks, hung out on the beach there. My mum and dad had a bunch of parties for their clients." Morgan's parents ran Constable Software and Co., a successful computer programming company, and had clients all over the world. Morgan, being an only child, was expected to take over the company when she got older; she was better with computers than anyone I'd ever met, but she didn't have much interest in inheriting the family business.

"Must've been a bloody good time for you," I said sarcastically, "being at all those office parties."

Morgan blushed.

"I didn't really talk to anyone, to tell you the truth. I mostly just stayed in the corner and hoped no one would try to talk to me."

Morgan was one of the shyest people I knew, which is probably why we were friends in the first place. The first time we'd met- seventh grade biology class, the second week of our first year at Alexandrina, where everyone seemed to already know each other despite the fact school had only just started- was when we'd had to do a lab report on the growth of Arabidopsis plants. It was about as much fun as it sounds.

Anyway, Morgan and I were the only two kids in the class without partners (Morgan was too shy to ask anyone, and of course no one wanted to work with the poor scholarship student), so the teacher paired us spares together. Now, Morgan was in all of my classes that year, and in the week and a half I'd known her, I hadn't heard her speak a word to anyone. She barely said two sentences to me when we were working on our lab report. It was only after a month or so of being partnered together in every class that she felt comfortable enough around me to actually speak to me. She turned out to be pretty nice, and we became friends fairly quickly after that- she wouldn't shut up around me. Still, to the rest of the school, Morgan was known as the girl who never spoke a word to anyone. The only other person to see the fun, talkative side of her was Ellis Maine, who started at Alexandrina when we were freshman in the high school program. Ellis' parents were big-time executives in the music industry, and he'd adopted the alternative style of his favorite bands, which made him a person to be avoided. But he quickly befriended myself and Morgan, and soon the three of us became a trio.

Our food finally came- I couldn't remember when we'd ordered it, for whatever reason- and Morgan and I kept eating and chatting 'til the summer sun started to sink into the horizon. Morgan called her driver to come and get us, and we waited for him outside Charlie's for a while.

"By the way," I started to ask her, "Do you have your schedule on you? I want to compare and see if we have any of the same classes."

She nodded, handing me a crinkled-up paper with her classes printed on it. "We probably have almost everything together, like we have every other year. Ellis' plane isn't getting in until tomorrow, but he texted me his schedule, so I'll get my phone out for you. I already checked, and all I have with him this year is English Lit."

As she spoke, I read over her schedule and sighed. "English Lit's the only class we have this year. At least the three of us are in the same class, first period with Mr. Michaelis."

Morgan looked worried, but handed me her phone. It turned out that Ellis and I shared everything except for science.

"At least we have that class," she sighed. "Is Mr. Michaelis new this year? I haven't heard of him. I hope he's good."

"If he's not, I can help you out," I said. "We've got a lot of Victorian text this year, and I've already read most of it. It shouldn't be hard at all."

"Easy for you to say. You're, like, the smartest person in our grade."

I didn't dispute her claim. To be honest, it wasn't exactly high praise to be considered the smartest person at Alexandrina, since most of my classmates would be dead broke if brains were money.

At that moment, her driver showed up. We both climbed in the plush back seat of the car and rode back to school in silence.

"You want to meet my roommate?" I asked Morgan as we got out at the dorms. "She's an interesting character… she broke the bloody door off its hinges today. Still, the two of you might get on well."

"That's all right," Morgan said. "I have to unpack my stuff. I guess I'll see you in class on Tuesday?"

"Yes," I said. "You will."

But I knew already that she'd be late.

**Now, some author's notes:**

**It goes without saying that I don't own Black Butler. Alexandrina Academy and all non-canon characters are mine, though.**

**Adrianne does have some connection to the Phantomhives, but that won't be explained until further into the story. *cue suspenseful music***

**Mr. Michaelis? I think you all know who that is. I might as well say now that this fic is a ship fic… although it's going to turn out to be a rather twisted one. But it's Sebby-chan x OC, though I won't say which OC it's going to be.**

**I'm only familiar with the manga canon, as I haven't watched the anime besides Book of Circus. But I know a good deal about it, so should I try to include some anime-only characters? (Probably it'd just be Alois, Claude, Hannah, and perhaps Drocell.) Give your opinion in the reviews, I guess.**

**Oh yeah, speaking of reviewing… REMEMBER TO REVIEW! Please? *gives you the puppy eyes***


	3. Chapter 3

Monday morning, the second day of September. As Ellis and I were trying not to fall asleep at our seats, we heard the sound of the door slamming shut behind us, startling about half the class out of our stupors.

A low, even voice rang out from the back of the room: "Good morning, class. Congratulations to those of you who managed to be awake and in class at this ungodly hour." Sarcasm was oozing out of his words. "The rest of your peers won't be so lucky; I don't allow students to enter my class tardy. Bear that in mind for the rest of this year."

Well, Morgan was going to be doomed. Ellis and I exchanged a look.

Now the voice was coming from the front of the room. I looked up.

"Very well. Now that I have your attention, I'm Mr. Michaelis. I'll be your professor for this course."

_THAT_ _was our professor?!_

Okay, for one thing, Mr. Michaelis did _not_ look old enough to be teaching. He couldn't be a day past twenty four or twenty five; he looked like he could still be in school himself. But while we're on the topic of his looks… usually I'm not one to be swayed by appearances, but even I was completely taken by him. With his shaggy dark hair, pale skin that looked like porcelain, and those hypnotizing eyes, he was the epitome of perfection. I didn't know why he was teaching us when he could easily have a career as a male model.

_Why was this man teaching us?_

Clearly I wasn't the only person completely distracted. Ellis, for instance, was literally _drooling_. I nudged him slightly and handed him a tissue while miming a wiping motion. Thankfully, he got the hint, and blushed.

"Now, if you're all done gawking and getting your saliva on these freshly cleaned floors, I will continue," Mr. Michaelis said.

That was embarrassing. Clearly, nothing got past this man.

"As I was saying, this course will have a prominent focus on Victorian literature." When had he said that? "Given that this school was named for Queen Victoria, it is only appropriate. Now, Victorian text is fairly dense, so I expect that you all will be annotating your reading as you go. For that, you'll each need your own copy of each book. We'll be starting with _The Picture of Dorian Gray _next class."

A hand shot up in the back of the classroom. It was Rupert Markham, who was notorious among the student body for his willingness to do anything to get out of his schoolwork. "Mr. Michaelis, sir, I don't know if I can get a copy of the book on such short notice. I, um, can't afford to get one right now."

Mr. Michaelis smirked. "Well, Mr. Markham, I recommend you try a more believable excuse next time. If I recall, Markham Publishing recently came out with an unabridged copy of _Dorian Gray. _I would presume _your father_ would give you a copy for free, if need be. As for the rest of you, you can all purchase copies from Mr. Markham over there. I don't want to hear that excuse again, am I clear?"

But what if I actually couldn't afford to get a copy?

"I'm handing back copies of the syllabus for this course. Take one and pass it, please."

Mr. Michaelis spent the rest of the class going over the syllabus, which I took notes on as he spoke. When the bell rang, he cheerfully informed us that we'd have an essay on _Dorian Gray_ due the Monday after next.

The class groaned in unison as we gathered our bags, starting for our second-period classes. I noticed that Morgan hadn't even bothered to come in. Oh well, I'd find a way get the notes to her before tomorrow.

"God, this course is going to be impossible," Ellis griped next to me as we stood up. "Mr. Michaelis is hot, but he's an asshole. Are you coming? We have calculus next, I think."

"You go ahead without me," I told him. "I have to ask Mr. Michaelis about something."

Ellis nodded. "I'll wait outside for you."

"I might be a while. Just go, okay?"

Ellis hesitated. "Okay, fine. I'll tell the professor where you are."

He left.

I made my way down the steps to the front of the lecture hall. Mr. Michaelis was still there, still smirking, talking with a blue-haired boy with an eyepatch that I didn't recognize. Mr. Michaelis said something to the boy, who nodded once, then sauntered off.

"Ms. Bloodworth? Anything I can help you with?" Mr. Michaelis turned his attention to me, gently pushing his glasses up his nose- he did it with his middle finger, I noticed, but I didn't think much of it.

I was kind of wondering how he knew my name already, but I knew better than to ask. "Um, I'm sorry to ask after you just said not to… but I actually _can't _afford to get a copy of _Dorian Gray_. I mean, I've read it before a couple of times, but I had to get it from the library and I didn't take any notes or anything…"

Dammit. Why is it that being around such an attractive person made me babble like an idiot?

The smirk dropped from his lips. "Oh, right. You're a scholarship student, aren't you, Ms. Bloodworth?"

_Even the new teacher who's only been here for a day knows that? Am I really that notorious for being the poor girl at a rich kid's school?_

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. _His eyes… are they red, or just an auburn-ish brown? They're beautiful… wait, what's WRONG with me today?_

"Ah. Yes, well, I can check with the school admin about getting you a copy. They really should have done that already, but I suppose that's beyond me. In the meantime, you can borrow my personal copy- I'd rather you not write in it, but I don't particularly care if you do. Is that all right?"

I nodded again, then dared myself to talk. "Yes, that sounds fine. Thank you, Mr. Michaelis. Have a nice day."

I started to walk off, but Mr. Michaelis called my name and I stopped in my tracks.

"Adrianne? I realize it's not easy to get a scholarship to this school; basically, the only way to get one is to be profoundly intelligent. That being said, I expect excellent work from you. I will hold you to a high standard."

"That's fine, Mr. Michaelis," I said, getting impatient. "I'd really best be off to my next course, though. I will talk to you in class tomorrow."

"Yes. I'll see you tomorrow, Ms. Bloodsworth. Don't disappoint me."

I walked out of the room and hurried to Calculus, but still found myself mentally fixated on Mr. Michaelis and his beautiful eyes.

I wasn't sure what color they were, but I knew one thing: when he'd told me not to disappoint him, his eyes had flashed red.

**All right, you guys! Three chapters in one day… whew! The fourth will be coming in a day or two. **

**I'll say right now that Sebastian's a pretty hard character to write well. On the one hand, he's a polite guy who's devoted to his work and his master, but on the other, he's a sadist and a demon and basically just a manipulative bastard. (As much as Sebastian's fangirls- myself included- love to forget this, Sebastian isn't a good person by any stretch of the imagination.)**

**If anyone has any feedback for my portrayal of any of the characters, then leave it in the comments, 'kay?**


	4. Chapter 4

I walked into my dorm that afternoon and was immediately hit with a waft of flower scent. It made me sneeze.

"Oh, hi, Adrianne!" Elizabeth chirps, waving at me cheerily. Her peppiness and positive energy made me want to puke, to be perfectly honest. "How was your first day of classes? Did you make any friends? Meet any cute guys?"

_My English Lit professor, _I wanted to say, but I didn't. "Whatever. It was boring. It's all just a waste of our time until we start doing some actual academics."

Elizabeth stared at me blankly with those shiny green eyes of hers. Then, she started to giggle. "You're so funny, Adrianne!"

_THAT WASN'T A JOKE. This floral scented room spray must be killing your brain cells, _I thought to myself.

However, I forced myself to be a bit more pleasant. I _was _going to have to put up with Elizabeth all year.

"Yes, I'm a regular comedian," I said flatly. "That's me. Class Clown Adrianne." To be honest, people really did laugh at me here, but it wasn't because of my sense of humor. "Moving on now. Sorry for the late notice, Elizabeth, but I'm having a friend over here this afternoon. She needs to get the English notes from me because Mr. Michaelis decided to be a git and not let latecomers in."

Elizabeth blushed a little. "He's not that bad. He was, um, my teacher at the school I used to go to. He's strict, but he's nice and he's helpful, you know? And he's certainly not bad looking, either."

"I will not dispute that last part. I was scared I'd drool over him so badly that we'd need to get a wet floor sign," I admitted.

We were interrupted by a knock on the (newly replaced) door.

"That's probably my friend Morgan," I said. "I'll get it."

I swung the door open, and Morgan stepped inside. She looked around, spotted Elizabeth, and blushed. Elizabeth, though, didn't seem to notice her embarrassment.

"Oh, Morgan! Hi!" Elizabeth greeted her. I raised my brows at Morgan to ask how the two of them knew each other, and Morgan kind of shrugged in response.

"Adrianne, Morgan's in, like, all of my classes except for English and chemistry," Elizabeth filled me in, having noticed our nonverbal exchange. Morgan's pink blush deepened to red, and I could tell she was trying (and failing) to find something to say.

To spare us all a little awkwardness, I grabbed my English notebook and flipped it open to let Morgan copy down the notes she'd missed.

We worked in silence for a few minutes before another knock on the door interrupted us. Elizabeth opened it to reveal a brown-haired, brown-eyed lady standing there with an overstuffed bag of supplies. When she sees Elizabeth, the women squeals and hugs her.

"Elizabeth! How I've missed you. It seems like you've gotten a bit taller since I saw you last," the woman said, her words sounding unnecessarily theatrical. "And I see you have two new gorgeous friends with you. I can't wait to get to work on them."

Elizabeth smacked herself on the forehead so hard that part of me thought she might get a bruise or a concussion. "Right. I forgot I invited Nina here this afternoon to make some new dresses for me. It's getting cold out, so I need some warmer stuff," she said, oddly defensive about it. she must have sensed that I didn't really want this woman in our room. How like a student at this school to put her own shallow needs before the preferences of everyone else around her. (I say 'needs' somewhat sarcastically, since Elizabeth already had enough clothing to stock an entire chain of boutiques.)

I sighed.

"I can make some new outfits for you girls, too," Nina added. "You're both so darling that it'd be a shame if I didn't make you look your best!" As she said this, she- I kid you not- groped my left breast (not that there was much to grope). Morgan had just recently finished copying the notes down, and now I had my notebook again, which I wasted no time in hitting Nina with.

To my shock, she just laughed. "Oh, a feisty one, huh? I know just the kind of outfit to put you in."

I was bright red now.

"Nina's a little … forward," Elizabeth whispered to me. "But she's one of the best designers in London and she's a friend of the family. I promise you she gets more serious once she actually gets to work."

_Be diplomatic, Adrianne. Just because Elizabeth is an obnoxious little rich bitch doesn't mean you have to be enemies with her._

"Okay, I'll put up with her. You can even talk me into trying a few things on," I said at last. And those green eyes of Elizabeth's lit up in celebration like fireworks.

I glanced at Morgan. "Are you okay with all this? If you're not, you can just go back to your dorm. I'll talk to you later."

"NO!" Elizabeth said. "Please stay, Morgan. I really want to be able to get to know you better, since we're in so many of the same classes. Pretty please? I'll be your _second _best friend if you do!"

Now, I've already made it quite clear that out of me, Ellis, and Morgan, Morgan was the least outgoing one. I figured that if I was barely willing to stay in here with Elizabeth and Nina, then Morgan would be out of there in no time flat. But, to my surprise, Morgan nodded in agreement.

"Why not? It's not like I have any homework on the first day of school," she said tentatively.

_Except in English Literature… thank you _so_ much for that one, Mr. Michaelis._

"Great!" Nina said. "Now I'll just need to get all of your measurements. Elizabeth, I know I already have yours, unless they've changed." Elizabeth shook her head to say they hadn't. "Then let's start with the dark-haired one..."

And so, for the next three and a half hours, I was prodded and poked and violated in so many different ways that I don't even want to go into it. Nina kept insisting that, with my figure that she'd deemed 'perfectly slender, like a model' (she was probably just trying to be nice, since I've always been fairly scrawny and boyish-looking), I needed to wear every piece of clothing she threw my way. I don't know how on Earth that woman had so much energy and could make so much clothing in such little time. She must have energy drinks coursing through her veins instead of blood. As for Morgan, Nina didn't stop gushing over how pretty she was and how nice she'd look in some of her designs. She even said that she'd recruit Morgan to model for her next catalogue if she wanted, but of course she declined.

Elizabeth had been the least fussy of the three of us, probably since she was the most used to being fussed over. But she kept a steady conversation going with Morgan, to my shock, and they actually seemed to have become friendly by the end of it. To be honest, I was a bit jealous- hey, I admit it, I'm an envious person. Being an underprivileged person at _this_ school, you can't expect me not to be- of how quickly she'd warmed up to Elizabeth. It took over a month before Morgan was willing to talk to me so kindly and openly, and yet it only took Elizabeth a day.

Elizabeth and Morgan exchanged cell numbers, and then Morgan was off.

"See you in world history tomorrow!" Elizabeth shouted to her.

And that was when I realized that Elizabeth was in the same grade as we were.

I felt like a moron. Of course, Elizabeth was in her junior year, too. At Alexandrina, they assigned roommates based on gender and grade level; your roommate had to be the same as you in both respects. Still… it sounds bad to say this, but Elizabeth just didn't seem mature enough to be a junior. She was too peppy, too bouncy, too willing to make a fuss over everything. Granted, a lot of my classmates were great at making things more self-centric and complicated than they actually were, but it still seemed odd to think about.

But this was the weirdest part: at Alexandrina, you either start in the seventh grade like I had, or you start in the ninth grade at the upper school. To transfer in with only two years until your graduation? That was basically unheard of.

So what was Elizabeth here for?

**A/N:**

**So this is where the plot is officially starting to build up. So far this has been a pretty lighthearted story (at least among the things I write), but I guarantee you this: this is a **_**Black Butler**_** fic I'm writing, so it can't stay that way for long. Expect it to get a little bit darker with each coming chapter.**

**By the way, I figure I'd clarify this: in this story, Elizabeth and Ciel have both been aged up. Elizabeth is a little older than Ciel in the manga canon (not sure about the anime), so that also applies here: Elizabeth is a high school junior and Ciel is a sophomore. **

**Please read/review! There's really no point in writing this if no one's gonna read it**


	5. Chapter 5

Two weeks later, Mr. Michaelis began the class by slapping an essay on each of our desks. He'd managed to grade 43 essays in less than 24 hours, and they weren't short essays, either. I was pretty impressed.

To my left, Ellis frowned. "A 70 percent? I made a B+ on every essay I wrote last year, and I didn't try half as hard as I did on this one." English was one of Ellis' better subjects. He'd even helped me out with it a couple of times last year. Mr. Michaelis must have been a very harsh grader.

I was a little nervous to see what grade I'd gotten, but I managed to be brave and flip my paper over to see the score. To my surprise, a big 100 was written at the top of the page. Underneath, in glaring red ink, Mr. Michaelis had written this note:

_**I told you not to disappoint me, and you certainly haven't. Your perspective was refreshing… I look forward to reading more of your work this year.**_

Ellis whistled, having read the note over my shoulder. "Wow, you did great, Adrianne. I knew you had it in you."

I punched him lightly. "Am I supposed to be flattered by the praise of a C-quality essay writer?"

He chuckled, then stuck his earbuds in, drowning out everything but his music.

"Now, I trust you've all seen your essay scores and have spread them all over your social media accounts by this point," Mr. Michaelis said sarcastically from the front of the room. "I can't say I understand why you would do that, seeing as most of your essays were mediocre at best. In fact, I think the only good essay in this class was written by Ms. Bloodworth. As for the rest of you, you will have the opportunity to revise your essays and receive up to an additional letter grade. Of course, most of your scores will still be sub-par."

Mr. Michaelis might have gone on longer, if not for a knock at the door interrupting him. It was Morgan. She'd been on time every day since the first day of school, but now she was late again. I wondered why she was even bothering to knock.

"Excuse me for a moment." Mr. Michaelis ascended the stairs at an unnaturally fast rate, then opened the door to see a slightly disheveled-looking Morgan standing outside.

The two of them exchanged a few words. I saw Mr. Michaelis winking at Morgan, then letting her inside. She plopped into the seat at my right.

I was shocked. "I thought Mr. Michaelis wasn't going to let people in who were late?" I whispered to her.

Morgan flushed pink as she answered, "He said that he knew I'd tried to be on time and he'd make an exception for me, just this once."

_So, Mr. Michaelis is a hypocrite, then?_

"Pardon that interruption, class," Mr. Michaelis said. "Since we've finished up with our pal Dorian, I thought today we'd start on _Wuthering Heights. _Be prepared to take notes on what I'm about to say."

We all shuffled to get our notebooks and pencils out. From the corner of my eye, I could see a shy smile on Morgan's face.

An hour later, the bell rang to signal the end of class. As Ellis and I were about to head to Calculus, Mr. Michaelis stopped us at the door.

"Ms. Bloodworth, might I have a word with you?" He asked me. Today he'd worn a crisp white button-up shirt under his jacket, and he had the top two buttons undone, exposing the milky skin of his chest and collarbone. Ellis and I both went weak at the knees. He continued, "Mr. Maine, I won't keep your friend for too long, I promise you."

Instead of looking Mr. Michaelis in the eyes, Ellis nervously kept his gaze focused at Mr. Michaelis' chest as he answered, "Yes, that's fine. I'll s-see you in math, Adrienne." And he sped-walked out of the lecture hall without looking back.

Mr. Michaelis moved back toward his desk in the front of the room, so I followed him.

"Mr. Michaelis, why did you want to see me?" I asked him. "Is it about my essay? You implied there weren't any problems with it."

Mr. Michaelis smirked. "Oh, no. It was basically flawless, Ms. Adrianne. I just wanted to congratulate you on a job well done."

Why was he being so nice to me? In the two weeks I'd been in Mr. Michaelis' class, I'd noticed that he seemed to delight in embarrassing his students. If he asked a question, he'd skip over the people who actually had their hand raised to answer (i.e. me) and call on someone who was half-asleep and completely unprepared (usually Ellis). And if anyone gave him an especially stupid answer on an assignment (rest assured there was never a shortage of stupidity), he'd read it out to the class while the person who'd written it would blush so intensely that I'd consider contacting the fire department. To get sincere praise from him just seemed bizarre.

I wasn't sure what to say. Mr. Michaelis kept talking, not noticing my lack of a response.

"Between all of my English Literature students, you were the only one who wrote about… what was it you wrote again? Ah, yes, the theme of shallowness, and how each character in _Dorian Gray_ was limited by their inability to tell a beautiful appearance from good moral character. A criticism of shallowness isn't something I expect to see from students at this school."

Uh… where exactly was he trying to go with this? I was completely lost.

Nervously, I stammered out, "Well, y-yeah, I guess it's not something I expect, either."

"Regardless, though, it was an interesting paper. It seemed like you were genuinely passionate about the topic. Perhaps it's something you have experience with?"

"Being shallow?" I asked him, still not quite understanding.

"Not necessarily." His smirk widened, and his eyes were flashing bright red, almost fuchsia. "But you seem to know a lot about shallow people, don't you? You_ are_ surrounded with them daily… at least, you seem to think you are."

He paused, like he expected me to say something. But I couldn't speak.

"I wonder. Could you be using this essay as a way to give thinly veiled criticisms of the people around you? Are you trying to pass judgments of your peers because you fear that if you don't judge them, they're going to judge you? Because, in that way, shallowness wouldn't be what's limiting you in the eyes of others. It would be you limiting yourself then, yes?"

_Fuck him. _

At that point, I was shaking. I didn't know why Mr. Michaelis was bothering to say any of this, but he seemed to know exactly how to get to me.

"Ms. Bloodworth? Are you all right?" He was faking concern now. "Don't mind me. I'm just thinking out loud right now. You really did write an excellent essay."

_FUCK HIM. Why does he know all that? He's known me for two weeks… why does he know exactly what my weak points are?_

"I should g-g-go to my next class now," my voice was so weak that I could barely recognize it as my own. "I'll s-see you tomorrow, Mr. M-Michaelis."

And I turned around and left the classroom as quickly as my legs would carry me, which wasn't very fast, since my legs were shaking.

I made it about halfway down the hall before I collapsed.

**A/N:**

**God, Sebastian. Way to be a dick. (But if I'm writing as him, does that make **_**me**_** the dick?)**

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm not sure when I'll have the next chapter up… probably within a few days. Hopefully poor Adrianne holds out until then.**

**Remember to review!**


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